Baby boomer

El of a place

ROARING BACK

Tiger Woods rolls back the years but falls just short in Valspar Championship

He beamed: “It feels good, I had it going through eight holes yesterday, but lost it and finished over par. Today was different. I turned it around and kept the momentum going. I moved myself nicely up the leaderboard.”

Justin Rose, who was due to partner Woods in the first group out, withdrew because of a back injury, effectively relegating the tournament host to last place in the elite 17 man field.

But he started to improve his position with a birdie on the opening hole, and he added two more on the sixth and ninth holes.

Getty Images

Woods playing partner Justin Rose was forced to pull out with back injury

AP:Associated Press

Woods is making his first competitive outing in 16 months after a third back op

AP:Associated Press

Macig short game helped Woods go bogey-free in Bahamas

The par five ninth was where things started to go pear-shaped in round one. Woods took a six, and adding another bogey on the long eleventh, before slumping to double bogeys at 16 and 18.

This time Woods added another birdie at 11, and played the tough closing holes in level par – but only after hacking out of a bush on the 16th, and then draining along putt for par.

He conjured up another brilliant escape on the eighth, and was clearly just as happy with his par saves as some of his birdies.

He added: “Those par saves were so important to keep the momentum going. And I played those two par fives in two under par - and that’s a four shots improvement right there.”